URIteacherknowledge - DSchnell Day 1

State Standards (GSE's):

Life Science GSEs:

LS2 - Matter cycles and energy flows through and ecosystems.

LS2 (9-11) -3
Students demonstrate an understanding of equilibrium in an ecosystem by …
3a defining and giving an example of equilibrium in an ecosystem.
3b describing ways in which humans can modify ecosystems and describe and predict the potential impact (e.g. human population growth; technology; destruction of habitats; agriculture; pollution; and atmospheric changes).

Example Extension(s)
LS2 (Ext) - 3
Students demonstrate an understanding of equilibrium in an ecosystem by …
3bb researching and citing evidence of global warming to describe the potential impact on both the living and physical systems on Earth.

National Standards:

Unifying Concepts and Processes:

Systems, Order, and Organization
Evidence, Models, and Explanation
Change, Constancy, and Measurment

Science as Inquiry:

Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry

Science in Personal and Social Perspectives:

Populations, resources, and environments

Context of Lesson:

This is the first lesson of my unit plan on Natural Resources. My main goal is to get students interested in this topic, so they will pay attention to the rest of the unit. The main goal of this lesson is to get students to understand the need to learn about natural resources and their environment. By having students analyze and interpret population growth graphs of other species, and then applying this knowledge to the Human population growth, I want students to see that eventually the human population growth will stop increasing, and reach its carrying capacity. I want students to understand that this is because humans have used up all the Earth's resources. This is why it is important for students to learn about their environment, and ways they can help.

Opportunities to Learn:

Depth of Knowledge

Webbs Level 2 - Organize, represent, and interpret data.
Webbs Level 2 - Identify patterns in events or behavior.

Prerequisite Knowledge

In order to complete this lesson successfully, students need to already have an understand of graphs; how to make one, how to read one, etc. Students need to know the difference between the independent variable and the dependent variable on a graph.
Students need to have some understanding of natural resources, and the different types (renewable and nonrenewable). These topics will have already been covered in the previous chapters.

Plans for Differentiating Instruction

I will be walking around monitoring group work. Throughout this, I will be available to help answer student's questions and guide students to come to the correct conclusion.
Students who seem to be struggling with the analyzing of the graph, will benefit from the worksheet I created with the questions on it. The questions are designed, in a specific order, to guide students to develop an understanding of population growth graphs.
Enrichment: Students who seem to be excelling at this lesson, and need to be challenged more, will be given population graphs of different countries and be asked to compare population changes in North America, Asia, Africa, South America, and Europe. I will ask these students to notice the differences in population growth in well developed countries, versus still developing countries. I will then ask this group of students to share their findings with the rest of the class.

Accommodations and modifications

To accommodate those students that may be having trouble understanding and interpreting the graph, I created the worksheet. The worksheet has questions, designed in a specific order to help guide the students to develop an understanding of population growth graphs. I will provide this worksheet to all my students for support.
I will be available to work with students in groups or one on one, to help guide the student to understand the topic.
Students who are having trouble seeing the overhead/smart board, will be able to move their seats closer to see better.
Students with poor hearing and/or vision will be given preferential seating, near the front of the classroom.
If for some reason, a student needs more time to complete an assessment, a test for example, the student can come after school.
If a student has an IEP, the modifications and accommodations will be followed as explained on the student's IEP.

Environmental factors

The classroom is organized into three rows of four tables, with 2 students at every table.
When students needs to work with a partner, the will work with the person next to them.
When students need to work in a group, they will work with the table in back of them, to form groups of four.
The Smart Board is located in the center of the front of the room. Every student can see the Smart Board where they sit in the classroom.

Materials

Copies of:
- Anticipation Guide (Provided in textbook's worksheet book)
- Population Growth Graph Worksheet (See below)
Various population graphs (6-8) of different species, one for each group.
Human population growth graph (Projected on the Smart Board).
Text book as a reference and support.
What about enrichment graphs?

Objectives:

Students will be able to read, analyze, and interpret population growth graphs of different populations.
Students will apply the population growth graph of the human population, to predict what happens when humans reach the carrying capacity.
Students will brainstorm and identify what factors that affect population growth.

Will students understand carrying capacity? The relationship between population growth and carrying capacity?

Instruction:

Opening:

Self Directed Opening Activity:
- Students will receive an Anticipation Guide with ten statements on it, relating to population growth, the consumption of natural resources, factors that affect population growth, and a couple of statistics related to these topics. Students will work individually and quietly for about 5 minutes on this, while I take attendance. Students have to say whether they agree or disagree with the statement, based on their prior knowledge of the topic.
- Instructions?
Sharing:
- As a classroom, I will read the statement and have students raise their hands as to whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement, reminding students that this is new material and I do not expect students to have the correct answer. I will tell them the purpose of this activity is to get them thinking about the topic and what they already know about it. I will ask students why they agree or disagree with the statement. This helps me to assess their prior knowledge of the topic.
- I will then ask students to put this away for now, and inform students they will find out whether they are correct or not after tonight's homework assignment. For homework, the students will be assigned the reading of p. 734-736. After reading, students will have to fill in the "After Reading" column, where they can compare their answer to the "Before Reading" column.
- So are these factual questions or belief questions? Which would be better to motivate students to engage in your lesson?
Segue to Engagement:
- Write on the board and tell the students: "Today we will: 1) Read, analyze, and interpret population growth graphs of various species and of the human population. 2) Identify factors that affect and limit population growth."
- I will ask the question, "After completing the Anticipation Guide and thinking about the topic, why do you think this is important for us to learn about?" "How does this affect you and me?"
- What will you say to validate their efforts?
- What is your time estimate for this activity? If Ss share their reasons for 10 questions, it will last 30 minutes. Is this what you've planned, or will you only focus on 2 or 3 of the questions for your discussion.
- It would be nice if you could weave the students' comments/answers into your transition: "It is clear that many of you think that XXXXX. Today we'll investigate the effect human population may have on our earth now and in the future."
- Question from the physics teacher: Are we the first species capable of adjusting its own carrying capacity?

Engagement:

Activity 1 - Group Discussion and Brainstorming: After completing the Anticipation Guide, I will split the students into groups of 4 students and give each group a population growth graph of different species. I will ask the students to interpret and analyze the graphs together. The big question I will ask students (and write on the board) is, "What does this graph say?" I want students to work together and figure out the meaning of the graph. I will tell students to try and group the graph into three different sections of growth to help them understand it better. After about 5 minutes of discussion and brainstorming, I will pass out a worksheet with these questions on it. Each students has to fill out their own answers but, students are still encouraged to work together, discuss, and answer the questions together as a group.

Activity 2 - Population Growth Graph Worksheet:

After separating the graph into three distinctive sections, and labeling them phase 1, phase 2, and phase 3, please answer the following questions:

What is the title of the graph?
What is graphed along the X-axis, what is the independent variable? Why are these two questions together?
What is graphed along the Y-axis, what is the dependent variable?
What kind of shape is the graph? (Here is where I will explain J-curve graphs and S-curve graphs) - How will you "stop the train" to explain this?
Why is the graph shaped this way?a
What is happening at the beginning of the growth graph? Why do you think this is happening?
Where does the population grow the most? Why do you think this is happening?
Where does the population stop growing? Why do you think this happened?
Why doesn't the population just keep on growing? What limits population growth?
Do other groups around you share a similar shape in their population graph? Does this mean that all populations of any species share this same growth pattern?

Activity 3 - Entire Class Discussion: After completing small group work, I will bring the entire class together. I will show a population growth graph of the human population (trying to apply this to their own lives). The graph will be displayed on the smart board, so I can write on the smart board and help guide the students. I will show them where we are on the population growth graph currently. I will ask students:
- "After knowing all that they do now about population graphs and after completing this activity, can you predict the rest of the population growth graph of humans?"
- "What does the rest of this graph look like?" (Here I would draw a predicting dotted line with the smart board marker.)
- "What phase, like in your population growth graphs you analyzed, are we currently in?"
- "Why do you think the human population experiences such a sharp increase in growth?" (Here I will explain exponential growth.)
- "Do you think that just like your graphs of other species you analyzed, the human population will stop increasing? Why?"
- "What factors limit population growth? Why doesn't the population increase forever?"
Interesting resource: Human Trends

My goal of this entire class discussion is for students to be able to see that the human population is currently growing exponentially, and will eventually stop growing like in the graphs of their species. How do you know this. Is it in their text? I want students to see that humans will eventually reach their carrying capacity, after using up all the earth's resources. Carrying capacity is not the population when all resources are expended, but the maximum number of a species that an environment can maintain longterm. This also gives me time to informally assess the student's knowledge after completing the activity. I will now collect the "Population Growth Graph Worksheet" at this time.

Think carefully about what you know, and what you believe. Knowledge is supportable by evidence. Question about how to describe the carrying capacity for humans seems to be more complex than for other species.

Closure:

To close this lesson, I want to first go over what we did today, by asking the students "What did we do today? Did we complete the goals written on the board?" I will remind students that we analyzed and interpreted different population growth graphs of various species, and then applied this information to a population growth graph of humans. We came to the conclusion that the human population will eventually stop increasing, after humans use all the earth's resources, just like in the other species populations we analyzed.
I will the ask students to revisit the same question I asked at the beginning of the class, "Why is this important for us to learn about? How does this affect you and me?"
I will assign the homework verbally, and write the homework on the "Homework Board":
- Read p. 734-736
- Fill in the rest of the Anticipation Guide, the "After Reading" Column
- Enrichment: Answer Assessment Questions 1-4
The complex nature of this question provides an idea opportunity for students to share their opinions. As your study of the unit progresses, you can ask students whether what you're studying has changed their initial ideas regarding human sustainability.

Assessment:

The assessment in this lesson plan will be the Population Growth Graph Worksheet I had each student fill out during group work. I want to see each questions answered fully and correctly based on the graph they were given. Also, the anticipation guide is to be filled out completely for homework, and will be checked for completion at the beginning of the next class.

DSchnell Day 1